Werner

And here's what went through my brain when I saw this:

"But don't epics require redraw? Of your feet? Uh... wow, that was dumb."

(Edit: OMG, I just noticed your sig! You just made my day. )

Yeah, I'm kind of confused about the details. I was guessing the procs were going in more than one power, like three each in two different powers, so that the powers themselves weren't completely shafted. In what power(s) are these damage procs going? I also did retardedly include a chance to miss on the damage aura, but not on whatever power(s) are holding the procs. On the other hand, if I had more details, I suspect they would just take the procs from a bad idea to an even worse idea. Having a proc as part of a set for set bonuses? No problem. Replacing all your regular slotting with damage procs in an attempt to make a poor man's damage aura out of some completely different power with a completely different purpose? Ugh. But I don't know if that's what the OP was considering.

Nope. The procs only get a chance to fire every 10 seconds. Figure a basic damage proc is 20% of 71.8 damage, so six of them will average 6 * 20% * 71.8 = 86.16 every 10 seconds, or 8.616 DPS. A damage aura like Death Shroud on a Scrapper with three SOs worth of damage enhancement and some accuracy will normally have a 95% chance to hit for 24.4 damage every 2 seconds, which works out to 11.59 DPS. As actually slotted on my Katana/Dark, with its own proc, global damage, Build Up, a chance of build up proc elsewhere and so on, I'm looking at 16.02 DPS average. So figure you're between half and two thirds of a real damage aura.

I meant when they reduced it from 1.5 for whatever insane amount it used to be. I haven't touched my build since I12.

Focus Chi is good for DPS and great for burst damage. I wouldn't skip it. As for usage patterns, I don't save Build Up powers for a rainy day. If I'm in a fight, I generally click on them as soon as they recharge unless I have a good reason not to (almost done with this spawn, want it for my alpha strike on the next spawn). But yeah, as people are pointing out, if it doesn't fit with your play style so sits there unused, don't waste the power pick. Pick something you WILL use.

The Achilles' Heel proc is just as useful against enemies with no resistance. Think of it as adding 20% to your DPS against that enemy when it fires.

I kind of misspoke on the uniques (only two have +regeneration and therefore benefit from being in your highest healing power). Also, I wasn't necessarily recommending slotting both +regen uniques in Fast Healing, just explaining why it is sometimes a good idea. I personally six-slotted Integration with Numinas, so that's where that unique is on my build. I have the other two in Fast Healing. With Physical Perfection available, if you're slotting it for recovery, it makes a good home for the Miracle unique. But it shouldn't be necessary to slot it for recovery on a Regen, and there are probably better powers to take anyway. Heck, you may not even want the Miracle unique these days. Might be a waste of a slot.

If you're burning through endurance on a Regen, the culprit is likely your attack slotting now that Focused Accuracy has been nerfed and the endurance cost reduced to compensate. I was endurance sustainable with old focused accuracy, and am swimming in extra endurance these days since I haven't redone the build.

My Regen boilerplate:

“There are definitely other approaches, but here's what I'd consider a basic plan for the Regeneration secondary using SOs or common IOs:

- Fast Healing at 1, 3 heals
- Reconstruction nice and early, 3 heals, 3 recharges
- Quick Recovery nice and early, 1 endurance modifier at first, add 1 or 2 more as necessary
- Dull Pain when or shortly after when available, as there is a lot to squeeze in at that level, 3 heals, 3 recharges
- Integration at 16, 3 heals, possibly 1 endurance reducer
- Resilience when and if you can work it in, 1 resist
- Instant Healing when or shortly after when available, 1-3 recharges, no heals unless you're swimming in slots
- Skip Revive
- Moment of Glory when or shortly after when available, 3 recharges
- Hasten when convenient, 3 recharges
- Health when convenient, 3 heals
- Tough when convenient, 3 resists, 1 endurance reducer
- Stamina if and when you start having endurance trouble, which may not be until 30 or later, 1 endurance modifier at first, add 1 or 2 more as necessary"

(Edit: Hmmm, I think I'm going to modify my old boilerplate to be a straight 3 recharges in Moment of Glory instead of 1-3. You really want that up as often as possible. It's a wonderful power, and in my opinion more critical to have ready than Instant Healing. Giving it the straight 3 will help to indicate that.)

Spines/Dark is a classic, and Spines/Fire can put out a little more damage at the cost of a little less survivability. If you want something more survivable, Electric/Shield is said to be excellent as well. Claws does decent AoE, but doesn't really compare to Spines if you're taking Fire or Dark as your secondary, and won't work with Shields.

I can't remember if damage auras crit, but I think the answer is "no".

Yes, it'll tear through AVs. On the survivability side, you have soft-capped defense, great regeneration, great hit points, and a self heal. On the damage side, you have the recharge to run the top chain, Golden Dragonfly -> Gambler's Cut -> Soaring Dragon -> Gambler's Cut, and you have the Achilles' Heel in Gambler's Cut. Hasten is close enough to permanent as to make no difference. Endurance might be sustainable without Conserve Power, and almost certainly is sustainable with it.

A few things jumped out at me. I'd drop Divine Avalanche, and I'd slot and use Tough. I'd want more to-hit in my build, and would suggest adding at least the Kismet unique, but it won't matter against most most AVs. I'd also want an interrupt reducer in Aid Self, but it might not make much difference.

Defense debuffs are probably not much worse than on some other secondaries. But yeah, it's certainly about as vulnerable to them as Regen can get. I'm turning out to really dislike defense debuffs on my soft-capped Dark Armor, but I knew it would be my Achilles' Heel. Just have to play more carefully in some situations.

With no Stamina OR Physical Perfection, endurance for no-inspiration challenges might (or might not) be an issue. You have about 2.7 EPS to work with for your attack chain. At the ten thousand foot level, I'd allow for about 3 EPS for the attack chain before getting into detailed calculations, at least on something I intended for no-inspiration challenges. Otherwise I'd probably allow for about 2.5 EPS before the attack chain as my first pass. Since I'm not sure exactly what sort of attack chain would work, and am too lazy to figure it out, I also can't be certain that endurance is sustainable. It should at least be OK for most purposes, though.

Cheap and easy improvements aren't jumping out at me. I'd replace the common defense IOs with Enzymes for more defense and better endurance usage, but even the even-level ones are kind of out of line with the prices in the rest of the build. You could change to just two common recharge IOs in Instant Healing to free up a slot, then change a set of Multi-strikes to Eradications for some extra hit points and better AoE defense, but I suspect that would raise the price point as well, and perhaps exaggerate or cause an endurance problem.

I'm not too worried about the low regeneration. I'm more worried about the low recharge, but that's to be expected here, and isn't strictly a failing. That's just the tradeoff you need to make. I'm curious, so I'm putting it into my survivability spreadsheet.

OK, I'm calculating 1871 for that. For comparison, my build (2 AVs at once) is at 1963, and Val Blademaster's build (4 AVs at once, designed by Umbral) is at 2236. Mine is a hybrid of defense and old-school Regen thinking (high Regeneration) with a little more recharge than yours. Val Blademaster's has moderate defense and a huge boatload of recharge.

Anyway, they're all kind of in the same ballpark, which makes me happy. I'm glad that defense builds are still viable on a Regen, and this is a serious budget build compared to either of ours. I suspect there's room for improvement at higher price points, or you could think of it as perhaps as survivable as Katana/Regen can get on a budget.

But as for what else you might be giving up, I'm worried about your attack chain. I'd want DA>GC>GD>GC>DA>GC>SD>GC, and you simply don't have the recharge for it. Golden Dragonfly needs to recharge in 8.448 and is at 9.49, Gambler's Cut needs 1.584 and is at 1.8. Soaring Dragon and Divine Avalanche are OK. Anyway, there's probably something you can do to get your required double stack of Gambler's Cut while still pulling off some decent damage, but it would need closer analysis. Basically, I suspect your attack chain will be complicated, and will do lower DPS than most. I could be wrong.

I can't think of a good reason to six slot Doctored Wounds. I'd either five slot the power, or five slot the set and add something else. On a Regen, that something else would likely be a recharge in Dull Pain or Reconstruction.

I'd recommend slotting MoG with some recharge, not just uniques. I wouldn't worry much about the Aegis psionic/status resist, but the Luck of the Gambler is nice to have. I'd just try to get more recharge in there.

Yes, Fast Healing has a higher base value. Therefore people tend to slot it for a higher percentage of health. But that percentage buffs the uniques as well. So if you can fit them in, you want to put the uniques in your highest-buffed power, which should be Fast Healing. It doesn't necessarily work out that way in practice since you have three uniques to slot, but that's the idea, and probably why you're seeing what you're seeing.

Top end performance has climbed rapidly over the past year or two, but this probably only affects a small fraction of a percent of the player base. When I'm leveling toons, they pretty much feel the same as they always did. I think this game wouldn't be much fun if I could take an SO'd and frankenslotted poorly-conceived build and go and solo nine AVs. I want normal play with normal characters to be challenging but fun. But I also like that with enough knowledge, effort and influence, crazy things are possible.

I sometimes forget that challenge is fun. This morning, I died a few times running a couple RWZ arcs on +2x8/bosses due to Arachnos defense debuffs and stacked Nemesis vengeance. I was being retarded, treating missions like farms, just running in and attacking randomly, and comparing my speed unfavorably to farming. And so it wasn't fun, and I was dying - this game sucks! Then I relaxed, slowed down, and started approaching spawns intelligently. Suddenly the game was fun again. Hard is good.

Yeah, build prices are a version of the old 80-20 rule, 80% of the performance at 20% of the cost. Except that in City of Heroes, it's more like 95% of the performance for 5% of the cost. Spending billions for those last few percentage points isn't required, and a better builder would get another 10% performance at no extra cost. It's actually kind of embarassing for me to be running around with PvP IOs. I KNOW I could have done better for cheaper, even if I don't know how. Spending billions can be an admission that you're out of ideas, which I was.

Now somebody sell me a Panacea proc for dirt cheap. I done bought myself into the poor house, and I still gots holes in my build.

I weigh the possibility of a very expensive extra 0 as a hidden cost of bid creeping. I'll bid creep, don't get me wrong, but my increments tend to be largish.

(Edit: And I'm lazy. And I earn influence fast enough to not want to waste time. I logged in one of my characters, and he'd made a hundred million in sales since this morning, so I bumped up his bid on a Panacea proc by a hundred million in a single increment. It's bid creeping. Kinda.)